CORVALLIS, Ore. – A Nobel laureate whose discoveries have advanced treatments for heart disease and impotence will deliver a keynote public address at Oregon State University this summer, part of the Linus Pauling Institute’s biennial conference on vitamins, minerals and natural products and their effects on human health.

Registration is open to hear the presentation by Louis Ignarro, who earned the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1998 and is best known for his work with nitric oxide.

Ignarro’s discoveries regarding nitric oxide as a signaling molecule in the cardiovascular system made possible new medications for heart patients and men who experience impotence.

The three-day conference, to be held at the CH2M Hill Alumni Center on OSU’s Corvallis campus, features scientific presentations on dietary supplements, such as vitamins, minerals and plant-derived compounds, and the role of reduction-oxidation signaling in diseases like cancer and neurodegeneration.

This year’s event, the Linus Pauling Institute’s 10th International Conference, takes place as a joint effort with the Society for Redox Biology and Medicine.

Ignarro, a Brooklyn-born son of Italian immigrants, studied chemistry and pharmacology at Columbia University and earned a doctorate at the University of Minnesota. He has been on the faculty of UCLA since 1985.

Ignarro’s keynote lecture, “The Road to Stockholm – A Nobel Mission,” is scheduled for 5 to 6:30 p.m. on Aug. 16, the final day of the conference, at Oregon State’s LaSells Stewart Center, 875 SW 26th St., Corvallis. The presentation is free but those wishing to attend must register online to reserve their seats.

OSU alumnus and two-time Nobel Prize recipient Linus Pauling in 1973 founded the institute that bears his name to carry out research into how vitamins and other micronutrients might improve the public’s health. The Linus Pauling Institute has been based at Oregon State since 1996.

Research programs at the institute investigate the role vitamins, minerals, and chemicals from plants play in human aging, immune function and chronic disease. Their goal is to understand the mechanisms by which components of our diet and/or dietary supplements may affect disease progression and to evaluate their usefulness in disease prevention.

About the Linus Pauling Institute: The Linus Pauling Institute at OSU is a world leader in the study of micronutrients and their role in promoting optimum health or preventing and treating disease. Major areas of research include heart disease, cancer, aging and neurodegenerative disease.

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